Brad Bortner's bloghttp://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner
en What to do with Social Media and Market Research?http://blogs.forrester.com/b2b_market_research/2009/12/what-to-do-with-social-media-and-market-research.html?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-67-_-blog_1248
<p>Social media is the interesting guest at the market research party that the hosts don&#39;t quite know what to do with. (My past blogs on this topic include: <strong><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/b2b_market_research/2009/09/social-media-even-home-home-on-the-range.html">Social Media, Even Home Home on the Range</a></strong>, and <strong><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/b2b_market_research/2009/09/will-private-online-communities-transform-qualitative-research.html">Will Private Online Communities Transform Qualitative Research</a></strong>) </p>
<p>Vast numbers of people are congregating online to discuss a vast variety of issues, ranging from their social lives to what is the best server to buy for their business. It is so vast, that it is troublesome getting a handle on it. Surely, any specific online community has lots of systematic biases, so it can&#39;t be treated as projectable to anything but that community, right? Of course, the same can be said of any qualitative research. Some of the approaches and techniques that are of interest to market researchers include: </p>
<p><span><span></span></span></p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/b2b_market_research/2009/12/what-to-do-with-social-media-and-market-research.html" title="Read the rest of &#039; What to do with Social Media and Market Research?&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/b2b_market_research/2009/12/what-to-do-with-social-media-and-market-research.html#commentsCustomer InsightsTue, 01 Dec 2009 20:36:40 +0000Brad Bortner3417 at http://blogs.forrester.com Is The Other Shoe Dropping In Panel Quality?http://blogs.forrester.com/b2b_market_research/2009/11/is-the-other-shoe-dropping-in-panel-quality-.html?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-67-_-blog_1248
<p><strong>Some recent events make me hopeful that major moves are afoot with enhancing panel quality.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>Since the beginning of online surveys, there have been questions about how clean the online panels that enable them are. </strong>Questions abounded about representativeness, fraud, professional survey takers, inattentive survey takers and the like. The response from panel vendors has been that they have strong measures in place, and that the problems were overstated. Naysayers have claimed bad sample numbers that range from 20-30%. Buyer&#39;s of sample were largely in a &quot;trust me&quot; position, since most of the quality measures were in the hands of the panel vendor. Associations (such as ESOMAR and ARF), have come up with protocols that all good panels should follow, and many have.</p>
<p><strong>But still, the sample quality debate has raged</strong>. Tempers have flared in major association meetings on the topic, as irritated major research customers have demanded that the industry do better. <strong>The problems were felt to be especially acute in B2B research</strong>, since the incentives were much higher, giving bad actors a greater reason to game the system. In response, the industry has created solutions, such as machine fingerprinting from Peanut Labs or RelevantID, or identity matching combined with machine fingerprinting and engagmement measuring from MarketTool&#39;s TrueSample. Mostly, however, there has not been a consensus about a best approach to the problem, in part because panel vendors are disinclined to adopt solutions from companies they consider to be competitors. </p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/b2b_market_research/2009/11/is-the-other-shoe-dropping-in-panel-quality-.html" title="Read the rest of &#039; Is The Other Shoe Dropping In Panel Quality?&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/b2b_market_research/2009/11/is-the-other-shoe-dropping-in-panel-quality-.html#commentsCustomer InsightsWed, 04 Nov 2009 14:08:26 +0000Brad Bortner3419 at http://blogs.forrester.com Will In-Sourcing Kill Full Service Research Firms? Some Notes From CASRO:http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-10-19-will_in_sourcing_kill_full_service_research_firms_some_notes_casro?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-67-_-blog_1248
<p>I just returned from presenting at CASRO. The topic was &quot;Will In-sourcing Kill Full Service Market Research Firms.&quot; It was a review of the major economically driven trends around quantitative and qualitative research and why many of the online tool vendors for market research have had good years, while many full service research firms have not. </p>
<p>I was a bit jumpy about presenting to the CASRO audience, since it is almost all market research vendors, and I knew that some (who supply the enablers of in-sourcing) would like my presentation, and others (who are exclusively full service) would be less happy. As it turns out, the audience was gratifyingly enthusiastic. Everyone recognized that the self-service trend was indeed making some permanent changes in the research marketplace, but that full service would continue to exist in a slower growth form. Those who were on the full service side of the house were quite interested in discussing how to harness these trends to their advantage. </p>
<p>So, what to folks think? Will the prevalence of online survey tools and MROCs (Market Research Online Communities) create a radical realignment of how companies spend their research dollars, or will it all end up being a tempest in a teapot? How should full service firms engage this trend? How should buyers of research evaluate whether to in-source more of their research?</p>
<a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-10-19-will_in_sourcing_kill_full_service_research_firms_some_notes_casro" title="Read the rest of &#039; Will In-Sourcing Kill Full Service Research Firms? Some Notes From CASRO:&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-10-19-will_in_sourcing_kill_full_service_research_firms_some_notes_casro#commentsCustomer InsightsMon, 19 Oct 2009 15:15:48 +0000Brad Bortner3420 at http://blogs.forrester.com Why Do Businesses Put Up With Dubious Quality Research Panels?http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-10-09-why_do_businesses_put_dubious_quality_research_panels?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-67-_-blog_1248
<p><strong>Now that solutions are finally available to &quot;clean up&quot; panels, will buyers at last insist that providers use them, or will a myopic focus on price continue to be the rule when on-line sample is used?</strong></p>
<p>The use of online panels for market research was highly contentious at one time. Traditional researchers thought that they would be prone to the same problems as traditional off-line panels: filled with respondents that are not representative of the general population motivated by the desire to earn money taking surveys.</p>
<p>Despite these misgivings, online panels have taken off in the US (and are coming on strong in Europe.) Why? Because they allowed research to be conducted in one third the time at one fifth the cost. This allowed buyers to say to themselves, &quot;ok, maybe its not quite as project-able, but give the savings it&#39;s worth it.&quot; Also, many panel vendors claimed to be doing <em>something special</em> to ensure that their panels were better, and indeed several of them did. </p>
<p>Since there was no way to actually effectively evaluate the quality of one panel vs. another, though, panel quality often took a back seat to cost for many buyers.<em> If it&#39;s hard to measure if one panel is more high quality than another, and even harder to judge if insights that are, say 20% less accurate, are directly responsible for bad business decisions, it was very easy for research buyers to ignore the whole quality issue.</em> A whole generation of researchers has now grown up in the US who have always thought that online research is the default, and would only turn to other, more expensive, modes if for some reason it absolutely could not deliver. </p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-10-09-why_do_businesses_put_dubious_quality_research_panels" title="Read the rest of &#039; Why Do Businesses Put Up With Dubious Quality Research Panels?&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-10-09-why_do_businesses_put_dubious_quality_research_panels#commentsCustomer InsightsFri, 09 Oct 2009 13:48:39 +0000Brad Bortner3421 at http://blogs.forrester.com Social Media Even Home Home On The Range?!http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-09-24-social_media_even_home_home_range?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-67-_-blog_1248
<p>More and more clients are asking me to help them assess how ready their clients (usually businesses) are to engage with them via social media. This generally drives a research project. The answers are aften much more positive than clients expect. </p>
<p>Recently I was presenting at a major conference by Purina. What amazed me is how many retailers and distributors of horse, goat, and cattle feed were using Facebook and Twitter to stay in touch with their clients on the range. </p>
<p>If Web 2.0 social media is that penetrated into the farbric of America, so that it is now common &quot;out on the range,&quot; I can think of few other businesses that would not benefit from its adoption for marketing, market research, or generally driving customer intimacy.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any surprising social media stories they can share?</p>
<a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-09-24-social_media_even_home_home_range" title="Read the rest of &#039; Social Media Even Home Home On The Range?!&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-09-24-social_media_even_home_home_range#commentsCustomer InsightsThu, 24 Sep 2009 13:40:50 +0000Brad Bortner3422 at http://blogs.forrester.com Why Is Customer Satisfaction Research So Hot?http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-09-08-why_customer_satisfaction_research_so_hot?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-67-_-blog_1248
<p>I&#39;m really interested in getting readers perspectives on why customer satisfaction research is so hot?</p>
<p>One thing that has constantly amazed me since I became an Analyst at Forrester Research, is the overwhelming interest in all things concerning customer satisfaction research. Easily a third of my inquiries are about how to design such studies, how to improve what they have, what are the issues with multinational studies, and how to deal with new concepts such as NetPromoter. </p>
<p>Even in this dire market, it seems that customer satisfaction studies are one of growth area in market research (according to Inside Research). </p>
<p>This has led me to write quite a bit about customer satisfaction (&quot;The Next Wave In Customer Satisfaction is CRM Integration, <a href="http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=47246">http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=47246</a>, &quot;Enhance Customer Satisfaction&#39;s Impact&quot; <a href="http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44166">http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44166</a>, and &quot;Why Customer Satisfaction Studies Fail,&quot; <a href="http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45043">http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45043</a>). But for those who are short on time, I&#39;ll net out a few key pointers:</p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-09-08-why_customer_satisfaction_research_so_hot" title="Read the rest of &#039; Why Is Customer Satisfaction Research So Hot?&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/brad_bortner/09-09-08-why_customer_satisfaction_research_so_hot#commentsCustomer InsightsTue, 08 Sep 2009 14:47:55 +0000Brad Bortner3423 at http://blogs.forrester.com Will Private Online Communities Transform Qualitative Research?http://blogs.forrester.com/b2b_market_research/2009/09/will-private-online-communities-transform-qualitative-research.html?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-67-_-blog_1248
<p>My question to my readers is this: are MROCs the next big thing in market research, and will they eventually take measurable share form traditional qualitative research? </p>
<p>It is an old story. </p>
<p>A new mode of research comes along, and the existing research world gives it a giant raspberry. </p>
<p>It happened when phone pushed out face-to-face interviews for quant in the US in the 70&#39;s (What about selection bias! It can&#39;t possibly be as projectable!). It happened in the late 90&#39;s and early 2000&#39;s with online panels (What about selection bias?! What about professional survey takers?! What about response bias and poorly constructed panels?!).</p>
<p>While many of these objections have a lot of merit, in the end, the new modes took a major amount of share in the quantitative research market (especially in the US). Why? Because they are <strong>much faster and much cheaper.</strong> Given this, many researchers and research buyers decided that they could live with even some of the well founded objections. As they gain steam, the research industry itself turns to remedying some of the more blatant issues. That is why we now see all sorts of online panel scrubbing measures such as Peanut Labs Optimus and MarketTools TrueSample approaches. (For more about new panel hygiene approaches, see &quot;Is the Long Panel Quality Nightmare Over,&quot; at <a href="http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45754">http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45754</a>.)</p>
<p>Until now, most of the major changes have been in the QUANTITATIVE research space. Qualitative research has pretty much been trucking along with traditional focus groups, individual depth interviews, and ethnographic research. It has gained very little from the economic leverage that the Internet has delivered to quantitative research. At least, that has been the case until the last few years. </p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/b2b_market_research/2009/09/will-private-online-communities-transform-qualitative-research.html" title="Read the rest of &#039; Will Private Online Communities Transform Qualitative Research?&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a><div class="categories"><h3>Categories:</h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy_term_36 first last"><a href="/category/web/tech" rel="tag" alt="See other content with this tag." title="See other content with this tag.">Web/Tech</a></li>
</ul></div>http://blogs.forrester.com/b2b_market_research/2009/09/will-private-online-communities-transform-qualitative-research.html#commentsCustomer InsightsWeb/TechTue, 08 Sep 2009 14:06:24 +0000Brad Bortner3424 at http://blogs.forrester.com